Newsgroups: sci.military
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!cbnews!cbnews!military
From: ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib)
Subject: Re: RAF camouflage in early World War 2
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington IN.
Date: Thu, 1 Nov 90 02:30:53 GMT
Approved: military@att.att.com
Message-ID: <1990Nov1.023053.9665@cbnews.att.com>
References: <1990Oct30.050259.4103@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Lines: 38



From: ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib)
*>So, here are the questions.  Why did the RAF flip the pattern over?  (I
*>presume, in spite of the opinion of any cynics, that it wasn't just to
*>annoy the people who painted the aircraft! :-)  And what was the purpose
*>of the black and white underside in early war colour schemes?  To help
*>the pilot tell left from right? :-)

Hmmm... would the plans be showing two different color schemes for 
the bottom of the plane? I've seen some model airplane plans that do
this: show one color scheme on one half of the aircraft and another
on the other half. I've even seen them draw the top on one half and
the bottom on the other half! I don't ever recall seeing a spitfire
with a half-black and half-white underside, or even a black one for
that matter.

The mirror image problem is interesting! I would never have noticed.
How were the patterns painted? Were big masks or templates used? Who
did the painting? Did every factoory use the same patterns, and how 
much do these patterns differ from plane to plane? How do these pa-
tterns differ for the different airplanes? Did hurricanes use the same
scheme? How about bombers? 

Also interesting: at what point in time did Fighter Command switch 
over to the grey/green camouflage seen on the later Marks? Color
schemes also varied with theater: Spitfires based in North Africa 
and in Asia had different color schemes than those used by Fighter
Command in Europe. The ones in Asia (South East Asian Command?) 
even had different markings: blue circles with a white circle 
superimposed - basically the roundel with the red missing. The 
idea, I think, was to avoid confusion with Japanese markings.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iskandar Taib                        | The only thing worse than Peach ala
Internet: NTAIB@AQUA.UCS.INDIANA.EDU |    Frog is Frog ala Peach
Bitnet:   NTAIB@IUBACS               !

